ed its way along the chill passage through the shrinking air:

"Robert--Robert!" and then, reeling, stumbling toward a near-by chair,
he fell ere he could reach it, in utter collapse to the floor, and lay
there--shriveled, grotesque, in no way pathetic, in all points
contemptible, as his nephew, in response to his uncle's unearthly
summons, rushed into the room, followed by the wide-eyed spinster.

For three days during the week that followed Raikes lay oblivious to the
considerations of loss or gain.

The utmost of the young medical attendant, who had been selected on the
basis of the small charges incident to a beginning practice, had failed
to restore the emaciated man to his suspended consciousness, until,
toward the morning of the fourth day, the spinster, who sat near-by in
weary vigil, was startled to behold the dull eyes of her brother
fastened upon her with the faraway, questioning look of one returning
from the confines of the nether to the sharp realities of existence.

"Rodman?" she inquired with anxious interrogation.

In response the thin lips of the sufferer moved slowly.

Approaching the bed, his sister, leaning over the unfortunate Raikes,
heard him articulate with difficulty "Water!"

Supporting his head with one hand, the spinster supplied his
feebly-sighed request, and when the last difficult swallow conveyed the
refreshing draught along his fevered throat, she restored his head to
the pillow and awaited developments.

As she sat at the bedside in an attitude of fearful expectation, it was
evident that some transformation, more wholesome than subtle, had
manifested itself in the mien and physique of his nurse.

A large degree of her pitiful attenuity had vanished; a legible vestige
of placid well-being seemed to have replaced the hunger of her eyes;
there was a vague, unsubstantial promise of possible comeliness in the
restoration of her cheeks.

Aware of these changes herself, and fearful lest her brother's sharp
eyes would discover them, the spinster recalled, with a sort of troubled
gratification, the occasion of the improvement.

Undisturbed by the rebuking glances of the abstemious Raikes, and
secretly abetted by the amused Sepoy, the poor woman had enjoyed the
privileges of the table with a relish and surrender which had begun to
result in the manner indicated.

For several days previous to the catastrophe which had concluded in the
prostration of her brother, the spinster had supp